


Preparations

by Merfilly



Series: To Build A Future [4]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: Character Death Fix, Fix-It, Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-01
Updated: 2011-09-01
Packaged: 2017-10-23 07:42:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/247859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Megatron has been contacted and must leave the ship. An Interlude that crosses over to <em>Patronus</em> by Femme4Jack and myself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Preparations

**Author's Note:**

> As in this whole series, the use of the canonical hatchlings is both explicit and implicit to the concept of the story.
> 
> This is a bridge scene, meant to overlap Patronus Chapter 11 when it goes up. Please, keep in mind that while the two series are conceived of as paralleling, some details may be in conflict.

Megatron was inspecting the work on the engines, conducted by the very Constructicons he had given the future Overseer to for training when the call pierced his consciousness. So much anger and a sense of a betrayal fueled it, making the mech curious as to what could have upset the Prime this time.

::Scion.:: He directed the communication directly at the chittering distraction that was his chosen companion on this tour. It immediately stopped flaring its panels at the one raised by the Constructicons, flitting directly to its nurturer. While the Combaticons, with their wide array of subversive, sneaky, and malevolent skills had the training of it, Megatron had opted to spend portions of each ship-cycle with it as well. ::Come.::

The hatchling, knowing that command well now -- and the penalty for ignoring it -- scrambled up the ridged armor of its nurturer, flattening into the nook of the shoulder and neck, plating settling so that Megatron appeared to have a misshaped shoulder rather than an additional burden.

As Megatron walked back to where the Combaticon quarters were, now closer to his own due to a need to ensure they did not actually kill the hatchling, he let the communication from Optimus filter through his processor, verbally jousting with the Prime as he moved.

Truthfully, the fact Soundwave had survived did not, in the least, surprise him. It merely complicated his plans to be gone from this annoying backwater system, and Optimus Prime's whining for assistance was one more reminder that the war could not just end.

By the end of the conversation, Megatron's fields were active enough to make the hatchling chirr and whine at him in protest of the agitation. He brought a talon up, covering the small form with his whole hand, deliberately providing comfort so that it would remain fixated on him. The absence from the _Nemesis_ that was going to follow was as inconvenient for disturbing the plans to imprint the creature on himself as much as possible as it was to the rate of progress on the ship's repairs.

However, returning to Earth would give him time to acquire new stockpiles of ready energy. He knew of a few depots that were very lightly guarded after all.

::Thundercracker, attend me.::

He stopped outside the Combaticon quarters as his second acknowledged the order. The door slid back swiftly for their Lord High Protector, and Swindle scurried forward to try and curry further favor. Onslaught was more steady, eying the leader and his burden carefully. Onslaught was still unsure of this assignment; they were fighters, an acquisition team. Whether that skill was turned towards resources or information depended upon the needs of the army, but raising a hatchling that wasn't even of any of their coding or design was unusual.

However, Onslaught had decided being on Megatron's better side was the smarter tactic in the current playing field. He wasn't strong enough, even with his gestalt, to take the leadership yet, and would not tolerate any of those others who thought they could.

"I will be absent," Megatron informed the gestalt team. "Maintain the discipline and praise system I decided on for Scion. He is to be kept from any Seeker except Thundercracker. Understood?"

"Yes, Lord Megatron," Swindle quickly averred as the hatchling reluctantly fluffed his plates back out and flung himself across the intervening space to the waiting mech. The wheeling, dealing hustler rubbed along the points where the plates were chafing the hatchling's cabling, taking him over to the work bench for Blast Off to inspect.

"Anything else?" Onslaught asked, optics glinting.

"Keep it alive... and back Thundercracker."

"Of course." Onslaught's loyalty was to the strongest, and so far that was Megatron. The jetformer would be easy enough to deal with, and if Megatron's absence proved too long, there were ways to become the strongest.

`~`~`~`~`

"I want the ship ready by the time of my return," Megatron told Thundercracker as they walked toward the launcher. "Maintain discipline, use force only as needed."

"I will, but I am not certain we can meet that deadline." Thundercracker scowled as Megatron growled. "We lost three drones manipulating the last lode-bearing rock to where we could work it!"

"Then send mechs to do the mining! Don't keep trusting mindless drones for things that merely need intelligence to succeed!"

"We are warriors."

Megatron's talons clenched, and he very nearly hit the other mech. However, that more or less proved Thundercracker's point in some ways. "If they seek to have a platform from which to be warriors again, they had better begin learning how to work," he said instead. "Have Ravage reinforce my decree."

Thundercracker stiffened at the implicit insult that he alone could not accomplish Megatron's goals. "The ship will be ready."

"Good." Megatron stepped into the launch chamber, setting the device to aim him quite specifically at Earth in one of the few blind-spots he had mapped out, just in case. Thundercracker waited to handle the actual jettison, almost wishing he had the nerve to corrupt the coordinates for a solar launch.

When it came down to it, though, he really didn't want to be in charge, so he merely fired the Lord High Protector into space on his way to meet that slagging Prime on Earth.

`~`~`~`~`

 _The fact Megatron was not going to be in proximity to the hatchling had both pleasure and annoyance for the unseen inhabitant of the ship. Starscream curled around the hatchling, pondering his next steps as the various components of Bruticus recharged._

 _"You will be mine without interference while he's gone, but I am intrigued what could pull him away with the current state of affairs," Starscream mused to the barely alert and quite distracted small creature. It chirred softly at him for being noisy, making the spectral visitor laugh at it. "You have opinions. Good."_

 _In due time, with the right prodding, Starscream would have a new tool, shaped by Megatron's little experiment and all of Starscream's willpower. For now, coddling was warranted, and the specter settled, his energy waves coiled around the hatchling as it too succumbed to recharge._


End file.
